A note to my boy

Anthony, you are giving me attitude lately, and honestly I love you for it. Sure it's annoying that I try to put clips in your hair, and I'm sure you hate that I'm always trying to cut your nails (so you don't accidentally claw my face off)... but I can't believe what a willful boy I have. In a short month you went from angel, to rascal. Perhaps it's this new found independence; you are starting to eat by yourself, stand by yourself, get around the house on your belly doing your army crawl- and maybe that's made you realize that hey, you don't have stay where I put you and you can have things your way.
When it's time for diaper change you don't ever stay put, you always do a flip to your belly so you can get away from me, which gives a whole new meaning to the term 'skid mark'. You absolutely, matterafactly refuse to sit in the high chair, you refuse to eat, you refuse to even look at me if you are not ready to or too busy with something else. You don't whine about it, you just get mad... really mad. It's surprising but I like that... I like that you just won't have it. Not any of it. No cry baby here! Haha, it's okay cause now you know how to give me kisses when I ask for them, and you still just give them out of the blue. If you are this tough at 10 months, I can't imagine 2 years!
You have always been a very inquisitive child, but now even more so. You flip your toys over and over and over to inspect it, or maybe figure out how it works and why the lights blink. You take that precious pinky finger and run it over every surface. You roll around in your walker and when you are tired of rolling around discovering the house, and tossing everything you can get your hands on to the side, you stop and put both hands behind your head.

You are the best kid around Anthony 'Muscles' Cocian. I'm glad to see the other side of you coming out, it is welcomed, and loved... even if it really tries my patience! I love my little rascal, forever and ever.

Art for an Hour & Food for More

I was so impressed when I learned about Jim Denevan and his innovative work. He choses sand, earth and ice for his canvas. He travels the world to draw on her surface, only for it to be eventually erased by wind or waves.

Not only is he an artist, he is the founder and organizer of something so wonderful called "Outstanding in the Field". INGENIOUS, really! Outstanding in the Field is a way to reconnect food to it's roots and diners to it too. They set up a tables in the middle of fields, farms, forests, on top of hills and cliffs and the meal is prepared by famous regional chefs (even Curtis Stone, ah!) with food from that region.

I looked up dates for NorCal but unfortunately this year it's almost all sold out here, however not all states are booked so if you're interested there is still time!

Pemberton, BC


Petaluma, CA


Half Moon Bay, CA

I love color

TOO AWESOME!

http://www.spearmintbaby.com/2010/07/rainbow-cupcakes.html

We're off to Monterey... ciao.

Monterey Bay

So finally after a very long while Nathanael and I are getting away! My mom and dad have graciously offered to watch our son for the night and we are going to Monterey! The last time we went to the Central Coast was in January of last year... we did go to San Francisco a couple of times last summer, but I'm not counting that. :) January of 2009 we went to Santa Cruz for a day and then we had an over night trip to Carmel-By-the-Sea, and if you know that area you know Monterey is a stones throw away.

Well the Monterey/Carmel area is very special to us- for me because we went there with my family when I was a kid and I just loved how it felt so real there, so organic, no additives- and it's impressively gorgeous. For Nathanael, I think it's the same thing it is for me (not the visiting it when he was young, since he is an East Coast kid) but the whole 'authenticness' and how breathtaking it is there.

Also, for our honeymoon we did a Central Coast trip- a type of road trip. It was an amazing experience for us together, Nathanael for the first time seeing some of the sights. My point is, it holds a lot of memories for us, and we both are very attached to that region of California, so getting to go back now... just the two of us... after not being able to for some time, is just wonderful and we are so stoked!

Along Recreation Drive, in Monterey, 2007

Study in Movement & Color (Bridget Riley)

Bridget Riley is an inspiration to me in her mastery of the simulation of movement in a static two-dimensional plane. As an added bonus to entice you to see them up close is that the longer you look, the better they get. The more physical they feel, like a mesmerizing presence.

This fabulous story by the Liverpool Daily Press highlights Riley's meetings with Caroline Douglas, the Arts Council's head of collections. When asked to describe Riley in 2009 she said, "She is 79 now but still as active and energetic and intellectually engaged as she ever was.” (Photo below taken in 1981.)

In a world usually dominated by men, Riley made a huge splash and dominated the OpArt movement working in black and white until 1966

when she turned to color. She catapulted to international art stardom in the mid 1960s when New York’s MOMA included her alongside Josef Albers (below)

Above: Ellsworth Kelly (Photo by Rex Features/Action Press)

in its 1965 exhibition "The Responsive Eye" and the fashion designer (and museum founder) Larry Aldrich printed knockoffs of her images on fabric for a popular dress collection. In 1968, she won the International Prize for painting at the 34th Venice Biennale. In 1983 she designed a mural of bands of blue, pink, white and yellow at the Royal Liverpool Hospital.

In an article by the artist "At the end of my pencil", Riley states, "My studies of the greys paved the way for the colour movement in Late Morning (1967-68). In that painting, I began in a very simple way to draw with colour. The blue to bright green movement is the form. At the core of colour lies a paradox. It is simultaneously one thing and several things – you can never see colour by itself, it is always affected by other colours. As a child one plays by lying on one’s back and filling one’s sight with the blue of the sky, only to find the blue goes slowly towards grey. Your own eye produced the after-image of yellow-orange to compensate for the intensity of the blue. Colour relationships in painting depend on the interactive character of colour; this is its essential nature. I had given up the complexity of form in my Black and White paintings, but I found that the principles that lay behind them – contrast, harmony, reversal, repetition, movement, rhythm etc – could be recast in colour and with a new freedom.”

“People should really look hard at the paintings ... and see the immense complexity of them. They’re not just stripes,” urges Caroline Douglas.

via 2Modern

three trees

rainbow eucalyptus

angel oak

general sherman

these three trees i want to see.
(general sherman i've seen several times, but would love to see it again with my family)

Will Ferrell and I

We both share the birthday of July 16th. However, I'm sure we're not the only ones... even if that's what I like to believe.

The truth is I am extremely selfish about my birthday. I do not like to hear that other people are born on 'my' day. This does not make me happy or feel like I have some kind of kinship to the person. In fact, I feel like it can't be true, and that they actually are not born on the fabulous July 16th. Once it is July I proudly exclaim that it is my birthday! The whole month is a month of jubilee, so once the 16th has passed that does not in any way mean the celebration is over.. oh no, not at all.

However, this year I only realized how close my birthday was about 4 days ago. Which is rare, very rare. Since I always proclaim only 15, or 14 or 7 days 'til my birthday, every day! Or I say things like, next month it will be my month. Or my month is almost over. Is motherhood to blame for this shift in self importance? Who knows, but I hope it doesn't last. I like insisting on being celebrated. I think it's very childlike. Annoying too... but still. So in honor of my ego and beautiful birthday, Happy Birthday to me.